Health and wellbeing is a key driver of consumer decision-making, and what most companies need to know is how to tap into what people want.

To answer these questions, New Nutrition Business will present at Food Matters Live – an international industry event showcasing the latest developments in better-for-you food and drink innovation – taking place in London’s ExCel from 20–22 November.

NNB’s director Allene Bruce will talk about the health and wellbeing trend shaping the market and the categories that are showing growth. Working from a database of global quantitative and qualitative information gathered over 20 years, NNB helps companies understand the most important shifts in health and nutrition and how to connect to them.

Another NNB team member to present at Food Matters Live is research manager Joana Maricato, who will discuss the personalisation trend with a focus on strategies that companies use employ to navigate the increasingly fragmenting consumer landscape. A trend that’s on the lips of companies of all types, personalisation is often described in the media as the ‘wave of the future’.

The presentation is a part of a personalisation roundtable, “The next chapter in technology for personalised nutrition”, and will take place on Wednesday 21 November.

Despite being ranked the third most environmentally friendly country in the world, Sweden wastes 1.2 million tonnes of edible food every year. Globally, a third of all food produced is thrown away. Aiming to change this, four young Swedish entrepreneurs got together and launched food waste app Karma in November 2016.

The app allows retailers and foodservice companies to sell any surplus food at half price by simply taking a picture of it and uploading it on the app. The products – ranging from bread and pastries to smoothies and takeout meals – usually sell within minutes, and vendors then decide when the food can be picked up by the buyer.

Karma claims to offer retailers as much as $57,000 in additional annual revenue, and provide free marketing to the value of up to $40,000 per month. The app currently has over 350,000 users and is connected to more than 1,500 retailers – including a major hotel chain and the country’s biggest supermarket chain – in 150 cities across Sweden.

While rescuing 175 tonnes of food, Karma has also managed to raise a total of $18 million in funding from various angel investors and venture capital funds. February 2018 saw the launch of Karma in London, where it is currently connected to around 400 retailers, and the ultimate aim is to make Karma a globally-available phenomenon.

The success of Karma is no surprise when considering the shifts in consumer mentality. It is no longer enough for businesses to do just a little bit of sustainability work on it on the side. And with more and more companies using sustainability as a USP – take for example Barnana in the US and Löfbergs in Sweden – the pressure is on companies to show that they care.

A traditional Portuguese bakery brand is successfully reinventing itself for the premium gourmet market by re-positioning bread as a convenient snack with strong artisanal and provenance claims.

Diplomata Biscuit saw an opportunity to offer “permission to indulge” for the many consumers who are looking for a lighter snack without the bulk of bread. Established in 1981, this small company from central Portugal recently introduced thin, crispy baked crackers made with bread dough and using simple and natural ingredients.

Retailed mainly in small lifestyle stores and upscale retailers like El Corte Ingles, the products range from simple “salt & water” crackers and cinnamon crackers to whole wheat puffy crackers, all of which consumers are advised to enjoy as they would bread – with “a good coffee, tea or wine”.

The brand is positioned as:

0% sugar

0% lactose

0% raising agents

0% preservatives

100% natural

Bread brands have experienced a lot of negatives in recent years, from concerns about gluten to – more recently – negative perceptions about carbohydrates and weight management. But for many health-conscious people, what matters is that bread tastes good and it’s versatile. That’s why it’s the toughest sacrifice for low-carbers, with 20% of people who want to reduce the carbs in their diet saying it’s the hardest carb to give up.

Making sure that carb-based products remain a good choice for people who want to eat better or fewer carbs will be key to success for all companies in carb-rich categories, and there are many opportunities to do so. You can read more about these opportunities in our 2019 Key Trends report (Key Trend 5 “Good Carbs, Bad Carbs): https://www.new-nutrition.com/keytrend?id=90